Transit Traditions to Celebrate the Holidays

00:00 Stop Requested

Levi McCollum: Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything transit. I’m your co host Levi McCollum, product manager at ETA Transit.

00:11 Christian Londono: And I’m your co host Christian Londano, Senior customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

00:20 Levi McCollum: Hey Christian, how are you doing?

00:22 Christian Londono: Good, Levi, how you doing?

00:24 Levi McCollum: I’m doing pretty well. I want to talk to you today for our Stop Requested episode about buses in parades. Buses being a center of attention and being displayed in a community setting like a parade. Of course we’re around the time of Christmas and of course there are other holidays, Hanukkah and Cuanta and you know, New Year’s. And a lot of these events have a parade around them and typically the transit agency will loan a bus and they’ll decorate the bus on the outside bus operators, maybe the CEO goes out and gives candy on a parade route. I find this really interesting. I don’t know exactly where it came from or how it started, but as far as back as I can remember in the, you know, just my transit experience, I’ve gone to, you know, the City of Fort Myers parade for Christmas and we had a bus there. I find it really interesting, but I don’t know much about it. Do you happen to know have any context of how this started or you know, why we do this?

01:46 Christian Londono: I’ve done some research. This is definitely interesting topic to talk about because it’s not just like the holiday and the participation on operate, but it’s all these other things that are connected to it, which I’m happy to discuss with you today. But as far as some brief research that I did earlier preparing for the this podcast, you know, it’s there’s hard to pinpoint exactly how this tradition for transit agencies to participate in holiday events started, but I did find that it’s probably early 1920s, 1930s. And then two main examples or notable examples are the London route masters. So that’s London’s tradition of Christmas themed buses and those are trade back to the 50s and you know, buses traditionally featured Christmas lights. And the other one is very known, you know, for us here in the US as New York City MTA holiday bus. So they also go back, you know, really far, over 30 years, wrapping buses, putting lights, Santa Claus appearances. So you know, it seems that a, you know, the main holiday where transit agencies started participating with some type of a bus, you know, theme bus connected to the holiday was mostly centered around Christmas. But also I want to mention that that’s not the only holiday transit agencies participate on. Right. Some of the popular examples is you know, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kawanza, of course, a lot of winter celebrations. But there’s sometimes, you know, Martin Luther King bus, Hispanic Heritage Pride buses, and I don’t know if you’ve seen some other ones, but those are some of the ones that come to my mind. So that’s a little bit of the history that I found on them and, you know, some of the different type of. Of holidays. Anything you want to add to that?

04:02 Levi McCollum: Yeah, those are. There’s one that’s really interesting to. To learn about some of the history of it. I. I should read more into why this came into being. And it’s no surprise to me that the, you know, two biggest or two to really important and prominent agencies like MTA and London and their system were the ones to start this. That really makes a lot of sense. One thing to add, though, is my experience going from Lee County Transit to Palm Tran and how many more events Palm Tram participated in than Lee County Transit. Not trying to keep score, but it shows maybe that as you kind of move up the food chain a little bit, you become a larger agency. You’re trying to get your presence out there, right? You want people to know who you are, that your service is available to them, that you’re a member of the community. I find that an interesting way to do it. It’s about exposure. And there are a lot of people that participate in these parades. There are a lot of people that attend them. I see the need to have that brand recognition and to be out there in the middle of the public.

05:30 Christian Londono: I think that being out there and connecting with the community is paramount. And of course, holiday service or any holiday or parade or celebration is a good opportunity. And, you know, it’s because it’s also things that the community cares about. Either the community celebrating or is gathering around specific, you know, festivity or specific day that is important to them. So, you know, like you said, it’s showing that presence, like, hey, we’re here. You know, we’re the local transit agency and we want to be part of the celebration because we’re also part of the community. Right? Like the public transit is out there on the streets with everybody that is in that community. So I think it just makes sense to be able to put the two together. I just saw, I think, a post on LinkedIn and I believe JTA had a holiday or like a Christmas bus, and I think one of their bus operators that. I think that maybe grows from the picture. I remember that it has like that, you know, Santa beer, you Know, it was a bus operator who actually dressed as Santa and you know, was, was part of the celebration. So I thought it was really cool because they didn’t hire Santa. They just found somebody within their, their team that would kind of like fit the role and will be willing to kind of like spread the cheer and, and you know, just have fun with everyone. So, so, but like you said, you know, you see it, you see it more in some of these larger agencies, although, you know, you see some of the smaller ones also participating. Especially it seems around Christmas is one of those festivities that a lot of agencies try to tag along and participate. But also to your point, why do you see more bigger agencies versus the smaller agencies? And what comes to my mind is the behind the scenes, like how do you prepare for a festivity or to participate in a holiday and what are all the things that happen in agency logistic wise to make sure that that happens. So let me ask you this question and your experience or you know, from your perspective, what are those behind the scenes? How do agencies prepare for this type of holidays?

07:52 Levi McCollum: Well, I would say the place to start out would be to find the, the folks that are going to participate at the event, namely the bus operator. Right. You need someone to operate the bus. And it does take some asking around, looking at extraport or whatever signup process that you may have to be able to figure out who is going to actually operate the vehicle. That’s a big one. Decorating it, that takes a lot of time. And, and I know that in your role as director of support services, when you were at Palm Tren, you, I’m sure, oversaw some of this activity of decorating the bus. I know that marketing departments are usually responsible, at least in my experience. So you’re taking those staff from their normal duties and setting aside some time to be able to be prepared for this event. You need to figure out where the, where the event starts, where it ends. You know, of course you want to be prepared with throwing out candy or whatever goodies that you’re going to give away. And I’m reminded too of a trip actually that Steven and I just went on a couple weeks ago where we went to Collier Area Transit on the west coast of Florida. So he and I, we spent a day over there talking to the folks at Collier. And what was interesting to me is that we were walking around in their garage and they showed us their holiday themed bus. You know, I had blinking eyes on the front of it. Of course, it had like a big wreath on the front. It was Very festive and very fun. You got to think like, your question here is, who’s doing this? Who’s behind it? How many hours are they spending to do this? Is there some sort of approval process to be able to select which event you’re going to go to and which one’s not right? If you’re a smaller agency, you might not have all the resources that a big one would have, and as a result, you have to be selective. You got any other logistical ideas? I’m sure there’s more than I’m missing there.

10:20 Christian Londono: Well, a couple of things. So for the most part, you know, you said it. It’s. You have to start early. There’s approval process because, you know, of course, you’re, you’re. Even every holiday you try to give it a theme and then there’s, you know, some. Some conceptual design and. And then it has to be presented to, you know, different folks that participate in the approval process, which, you know, of course it’s different from agency to agency, but usually, you know, if you’re under, you know, local government, there’s going to be a level of involvement from that point, especially because everything is going to be displayed in the community. So you have to make sure that everything it’s ready to be put out there, right? Like the messaging. Even if there’s a theme, let’s say that you’re participating in a parade and the organizers of the parade, they’re giving a theme to the. To the overall parade. So, you know, a lot of the times you have to align with theme and then get all those people involved. The other piece, 100%, who’s like the human resources behind it, who is doing what during those days. And the other piece that is very important here is that we’re talking about holidays, right? So sometimes folks would rather to be off during holidays. A lot of the times, you know, administrative employees at different transit agencies, they have that giving holiday off. So you do have to find out who’s going to be working and showing up to make that happen. And the other piece that is important is a lot of the times agencies ask the staff to volunteer to participate during this event. So you have to get a list of volunteers and all the things they’re going to be doing. And always very impressive when you see the participation of the employees at the transit agency. A lot of people come out during these events. And you know, of course, some of the supervisors and the driver, they’re being paid for their work. You know, they have a very important primary function, but there’s a lot of folks that are participating that are volunteering. So as you’re finalizing the design, either you’re decorating yourself, you’re hiring somebody to decorate it, or you’re wrapping the exterior of the bus. You know, it takes some time. And it also has a budget considerations, right, Because a lot of agencies also would like to participate, but they might be budget constrained to pay for, you know, $10,000 to wrap a bus or just buy all the decorations plus the staff to man the operation. It could be expensive, but 100%, it’s an opportunity to promote. It’s a promotional activity, right? It’s an opportunity to let people know, hey, transit is here and it’s pressing and this is who we are. And when you put out a festive bus, you know, that is has a cool energy and is the creativity shown in the decorations of the lights. Then, you know, everybody’s, wow, that’s really cool. You know, who’s behind it? Oh, that is, you know, Lynx bus or a Palm Trend bus or JTA bus or MTA bus. Whichever agency, they’re gonna see it. So I think that that’s a great thing to participate. But yeah, 100%, the logistics are very important. You have to start early. A lot of the times you’re almost starting a year before the event is actually happening. So preparation is critical to make these events happen. And palm trend 100% was a great example of involvement, capitalizing on those events and being involved type of events and parades, not just for Christmas, but throughout the year. And you know, as I participated in some of those efforts, I, I just see the benefit and I 100% encourage transit agencies, folks that are listening in, maybe from marketing departments or just overall, any, any portion of the agency. If you want to promote the branding, be part of the community, have some fun, you know, putting out holiday vehicles and being part of, you know, the community around these events is 100% important. So the other thing where I wanted to take our conversation to is that the impact of transit agencies during holiday. So, yes, participate of a parade, put out a bus, you know, wrap a bus or something like that and be out there. But what are all the other things that transit agencies are doing during the holidays? And, and it’s important. So, you know, tell me a little bit about holiday service. Levi, you know, think about the times that you were working on scheduling service or working on a holiday and operate. What are the considerations and what is the importance of that work by transit agencies?

15:17 Levi McCollum: Yeah, well, holiday service is really an important time For a number of reasons, you. You have people that are traveling to go see family, go see friends. And for those who might not have an automobile as their primary source of transportation or mobility, they’re relying on the bus year round just because it’s a holiday. For those folks that they need some sort of mobility and that will often take the shape of a bus or a train. Of course, you need a plan accordingly to make sure that the agency has those resources available to be able to staff adequately. In some cases, transit agencies say, this is not a day that we’ll operate. We’re going to give our employees some time off. And I’m certainly empathetic to that as well. Fortunately, I was in a situation, I think, as were you working in the administrative side, you do get that time off. But for operators, right, they’re out there, they’re grinding behind a wheel or, you know, they don’t get those days off. So I can certainly understand where transit agency might say, hey, we’re going to, you know, take these six days off a year. But there’s a lot of consideration. I think if you’re going to do that, you know, from an administrative standpoint, I’d say like putting my, you know, putting my planner hat on here. A lot of my responsibility was to, you know, figure out what those detours were going to be. If we had something going on, if there was a major event, which oftentime during this holiday season, there, there are many. If the bus is on a parade route, that likely means that your, your parade is probably going through the middle of your downtown or possibly, you know, interrupting your service in some way. So you have to figure out what your disruption management plan is. You know, are you rerouting? Are you not serving some stops? Are you adding some temporary stops? You got to notice the public and make sure that people are aware that, hey, this is about to happen in the, you know, upcoming week. Please be prepared. Don’t use this stop. Use that stop over there. A lot of that messaging now can take place digitally, but when I was working at Litran, we were putting out flyers that the planning and marketing department would make. Those would be laminated and attached to signposts. We would bag the stops. I’m sure you’re familiar with doing that as well. You know, every agency kind of has their own sop, their own operating procedure to make sure that the public is noticed. But, you know, fortunately, these digital solutions, I think are making that job a little bit easier. You know, you still gotta bag the stops. But if people are using the mobile apps or you know, even the web apps, then they’re able to get those writer alert notifications like in our spot system. You know, you’re, you’re able to get those notifications directly in your, your mobile phone. You can get push notifications now which are really nice that if your stop is affected then you know you’re going to get that message once the agency sends it out through their GTFS RT feed that would, that would come through the service alerts channel. So certainly a lot of considerations, it’s a, a heavy load all around on the operation side, on the planning side. And of course from the writer’s perspective, their service is potentially disrupted or, or changed in some way. Maybe you’re operating a Saturday level service on a weekday, you know, that impacts me, especially if the Service ends at 7pm on a Saturday. And look, I, I need to get from A to B and you know that my trip needs to start at 8:00 or 9:00. You know, what do I do? I gotta plan kind of both ends of my trip a little bit differently.

19:46 Christian Londono: Yeah, that’s definitely a couple of, you know, really important things that I just wanted to reemphasize that you just mentioned. One is the role of technology and you know, during the holidays or around holidays and terms of notifying the customers, letting them know, especially regular riders they use, you know, typically, you know, same stops, origin and destination, you know, places they go. Often they come from, they’re familiar with their stuff and if you alert them then they can make the planning, the plans accordingly. Right. Like to make sure that, you know, they don’t find out last minute what they’re trying to get to work. That’s one point I think is 100% important, is leverage the technology to help the riders during those days. And the second one, very much connected as well, is that people in the community have mobility needs around the holidays. And what I’ve learned from experience is the holiday with the least amount of ridership typically is Thanksgiving because there’s a lot of, you know, factors out there in the community in terms of the economy and so on. Like a lot of stores, a lot of places are closed, meaning there people don’t need to go there to work and so on. So there’s, there’s definitely a reduction of mobility from that standpoint. You know, no school, no. So many destinations are pretty much closed and therefore there’s less mobility. But there are still people traveling and there’s agencies, you know, around the U.S. of course it Costs money to run services, especially during the holidays, when you, a lot of times have to pay more. Those people that you’re taking away from enjoying the holiday, like everyone, and then putting them to work. But then it’s also rewarding when an agency is able to put service. And I know once Palm Trend started running service during Thanksgiving, there were seniors that complimented the agency for doing so because that was the only way, the only lifeline, right, that they have to be able to go out there and have a holiday meal or meet with their friend or relative was having that transportation. So it’s very important, the role of holiday service and transit agencies around holidays, right? Not just being participating in the parade, being out there, present, promoting, branding, promoting ridership, but it’s also that service during those days and how it’s allowing people to be connected to their needs. Whatever it is, if it’s, you know, go and visit a friend, you know, I would argue almost as important as being able to get to work that day and provide the services that people enjoy during the holidays.

22:34 Levi McCollum: Yeah, that’s a good point. And I would say that to our listeners. You know, go back a few weeks ago where we discussed holiday service at length. I believe that was in late November, right around the Thanksgiving episode. You know, we talked about how important holiday service is. It’s also important for agencies to get out there and show your face and make sure that you’re humanizing the service. Right. It’s not just a bus service. It’s a bus service operated by the people from your own community. And that message really needs to be loud and clear whenever you’re. Whenever you have the opportunity and the financial resources to be able to do so.

23:17 Christian Londono: Yes, 100%. You know, another thing that I want to say related to participating during the holidays and potentially having a theme bus is you could start slow, right? Like, you don’t necessarily need to have a bus at the parade. You know, you could just have a banner with the agency’s name and then holiday greeting and have people walk the parade. You know, walk, work with your employees to also gauge their interest and participation. I think that sometimes we could be surprised by, you know, how transit agencies love and care their agents for their agency and they want to be at these events. A lot of times they are going to these events and then being able to actually walk the parade, like being part of it. It’s something that we’ll have fun with. I know Palm Trend typically has a bus during their employee, annual employee, kind of like theme party or recognition party, and the buses typically have been decorated by bus operators. They pull from their pocket money to buy decorations. And I mean I’ve seen some of these buses and they’re impressive. Like how they put all these things inside the buses and make it like a winter wonderland inside is incredible. So kudos to those employees that go the extra mile, that volunteer, they help make these events happen. But that would be something that will recommend agencies or folks in transit agencies is gauge the interest, ask your management, ask coworkers if they would be willing to participate in just, you know, sometimes it all it takes is just asking if there’s an opportunity and then also finding the events. Right. I be able to connect with the organizers of an event and propose the participation of the transit agency. A lot of the times they are looking for, you know, different services in the community to get involved. So it’s. It’s sometimes a phone call away. So that would be my recommendation. And lastly, something else I wanted to put out there is that I’m curious to see holiday and specifically during this, you know, Christmas, you know, holiday season to see some of the latest bosses out there. So anybody that is listening to this show, if you would care to send us an article or a picture of your agency’s bus or decorations, anything you found. Cool. Do you want to share? I will be happy to see those. My email is C as in Christian and my last name Londano spelled like London with an o at the end. So Clondano Tatransit.com if you could email me something, I would love to take a look at that. I don’t know Levi, if you want to see it as well but I’m curious if we get any response and see the creative things that agents are doing around the country.

26:26 Levi McCollum: Absolutely, yeah. I think that’s a great suggestion and we can add those to the show notes. If folks out there listening would like to share some of the best buses and best transit vehicles that they can find, the latest to greatest would be much appreciated. I think this is a good place to end it. Thanks Christian for chatting with me about buses on parade as I’ll call it. This has been a really fun episode and I think festive and appropriate for the time of the year. Like the Wish all of our listeners happy holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Happy New Year. We will be back next week for, for another episode. It will be another shorter episode and we hope that you tune in. Thank you so much.

27:24 Christian Londono: Thank you Levi. Thank you to our listeners. Happy holidays.